Ways to Establish Your Personal Brand
When it comes to job searching, having a personal brand is imperative. A personal brand is a way to differentiate yourself from others. When coaching graduate students, I find that they are often confused and overwhelmed about the process of establishing a personal brand. In this blog post, I’ll explain what a personal brand is comprised of and how you can take steps to build your own.
What is a brand?
A brand is memorable. It tells people what you’re about and why they should engage with you (hire you, collaborate with you, etc.) and your work. A brand has everything to do with who you are, what you represent, how you make people feel, and the credibility you have. Your brand has the power to make it into rooms that you are not physically in, meaning others can facilitate opportunities for you that you are not aware of.
Why is a personal brand important?
As a graduate student, your brand is important no matter if you are choosing to go the academic route, research, consulting, entrepreneurship, or any other career path. Getting serious about your brand puts you in the driver’s seat of how you want to be received and perceived by others.
Thoughtful branding can open doors for you. Building and activating your personal brand is a proactive activity that keeps people from creating their own thoughts or assuming things about you. And through being serious about building your personal brand, you are committing to getting out there to foster the thoughts that you want your network and others to have about you.
Components of a personal brand
Your personal brand encompasses how you look, how you dress, what you say, what shows up when you google yourself, among other things. Assess your wardrobe and get a sense of what it is communicating. If you don’t like what your current wardrobe is communicating, make a plan to get pieces that speak to the look and impression that you would like to foster.
Here are some things that you can do right now to establish your brand.
Create a website - this is a great place to house all of your information and show what you’re all about. You may decide to have a blog on on your website to showcase your subject matter expertise.
Get active on LinkedIn - If you are not already on LinkedIn, you need to get on. This is one of the most underrated platforms to build your brand. There are over 830 million people on LinkedIn. Update your profile to communicate your brand (check out mine for inspiration), update your headshot, connect with others and start engaging. Depending on your comfort level, you may decide to write original posts through LinkedIn’s newsletter feature, comment on the posts of others, share original video content, or share articles or resources that are created by others.
Start a podcast - A podcast is a great way to establish your brand. You may choose to create a podcast and release episodes that showcase your expertise or you may choose to share current events that are related to a particular topic in a digestible way that helps people better understand it.
Publish a manuscript - Publishing is a great way to establish yourself as an expert and thought leader. Early on, find opportunities to collaborate with others on a manuscript to learn about the process and strengthen your writing and confidence.
Present at a conference - Present on topics that relate to the subject that you hope to be a subject matter expert in.
Volunteer - Find opportunities to volunteer through professional organizations and even in the work setting. The key to volunteering is to do so for things that you feel passionate about that are related to how you would like to be received.
Some other things you might find helps to establish your personal brand is:
Update your wardrobe - Especially if you subscribe to the ideas of dressing like the job you want not the job that you have. It is really amazing to see how differently people treat you by just updating your wardrobe.
Post on social media - Instagram, TikTok and other platforms might be great places for you to spread your brand. My tip is to find one platform that works for you and learn as much as you can and be consistent on the platform.
Network - Attend events that make sense and support the personal and professional goals that you have for yourself. Share information about you and brand and find ways to add value to others that you connect with.
Looking for more personal branding tips, get yourself a copy of my ebook, Taking Charge: A Career Guide for Graduate Students.
If one of these tips stood out or was an AHA moment for you, I would love to hear from you. You can also share your own tips for personal branding in the comments of this blog post.
